{"id":21721,"date":"2026-05-31T08:13:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T08:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/21721\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T08:13:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T08:13:06","slug":"afl-rd-12-live-updates-melbourne-vs-gws-west-coast-vs-essendon-blog-scores-and-stats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/21721\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL Rd 12 live updates: Melbourne vs GWS, West Coast vs Essendon – blog, scores and stats"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"KozzieKozzie Pickett looms as the major X-factor heading into the final quarter in Alice Springs. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

A late goal from Tom Sparrow from the front of a big pack inside 50 keeps the door ever so slightly ajar for Melbourne!<\/p>\n

Melbourne concedes 5.1 to 2.4 for the quarter, giving the Giants the decisive break heading into the final change.<\/p>\n

It’s still technically possible, particularly with the amount of ball the Dees are getting inside 50, but they’ve got to be more efficient with it.<\/p>\n

The Giants, on the other hand, have been absolutely lethal every time they’ve gone forward.<\/p>\n

GWS has the five top ball-winners on the ground, led by Lachie Ash, who has 24 touches and seven rebound 50s to go along with 413m gained.<\/p>\n

Jack Steele and Jake Bowey lead the way for the Dees with 19 touches apiece, while Max Gawn has 17 touches and five intercepts.<\/p>\n

Kozzie Pickett has 13 touches, seven inside 50s, six clearances and six score involvements. A massive final term from him could make this an interesting finish.<\/p>\n

I wouldn’t count Melbourne fully out just yet.<\/p>\n

The Giants have another injury concern as well. Sam Taylor limped off late in the quarter and had his legs worked on, but the Giants are saying it’s just cramp at this stage.<\/p>\n

It’ll be interesting to see how mobile Taylor is in the final term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kozzie Pickett looms as the major X-factor heading into the final quarter in Alice Springs. (Getty Images) A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[77,9202,5064,9732,2127,191,260,261,5069],"class_list":["post-21721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-melbourne","tag-afl","tag-bombers","tag-demons","tag-eagles","tag-giants","tag-live","tag-melbourne","tag-sport","tag-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}